The significance of the Gleason’s Score and why we “CAN” tell the difference between the slow growing and the bad kind in prostate cancer. The dirty little secret? You have to do the biopsy to know.

Finding and treating all prostate cancers early may seem like a no-brainer. But some prostate cancers grow so slowly that they would likely never cause problems. Because of an elevated PSA level, some men may be diagnosed with a prostate cancer that they would have never even known about at all — it would never have lead to their death or even caused any symptoms. But they may still be treated for these cancers, either because the doctor can’t be sure how aggressive (fast growing and fast spreading) the cancer might be, or because the men are uncomfortable not having any treatment.

I have read many times on various respected organizations websites that “doctors don’t know which prostate cancers are slow-growing and which are fast growing. Granted there are some Gleason 6’s by virtue of their location at the seminal vesicles that act aggressively…but in general…